Donald Hurd, 68, of Big Fork, Minn., who wounded a mugger Tuesday in St. Paul, says he’s not sure he’d handle the situation differently. “I feel like I was violated,” he said after leaving jail Thursday.

After spending two nights in the Ramsey County jail, Donald Hurd walked out Thursday with no wallet, no cash and nowhere to go.

The 68-year-old man was mugged Tuesday night in St. Paul, and officers arrested him after he shot one of the suspected robbers.

Hurd was taking the bus Tuesday to pick up his Chevrolet truck from a repair shop and was attacked between stops. On Thursday, he made it to the Roseville shop, but his truck wasn’t ready.

The Bigfork, Minn., man thought the jailers would return $100 in cash the robbers hadn’t found. He was going to use it to stay in a motel Thursday night. As it turns out, when the jail returns inmates’ property, they trade cash for a check. Hurd didn’t know what good a check would do him because his driver’s license had been stolen.

“I don’t like to ask for help,” said Hurd, who is retired but comes to the Twin Cities to do odd jobs. He is divorced, and his family lives out of state. “If you get into a situation, it’s up to you to get out of it.”

Hurd’s problems might not be over. Though he was released from jail, he could yet face criminal charges.

He might be a hero in the court of public opinion, but whether Hurd broke the law is a different story.

Hurd said he was only trying to scare the three young men who attacked him. Legal experts said Hurd’s case doesn’t seem to meet the self-defense standard in Minnesota. The 18-year-old man who Hurd shot in the shoulder is expected to be fine, police said.

“You would think somewhere between the letter of the law, there’s some space there for some consideration and understanding,” Hurd said. “It is an injustice.”

The robbery suspects weren’t arrested. The investigation into the robbery and the shooting continues, police said.

Hurd was born in St. Paul and raised in San Francisco. He came back to St. Paul when he was 15, after his mother was killed in a car accident, and he lived with his father.

On his 17th birthday, Hurd enlisted in the Army and worked as a military police officer. He was stationed in Germany, what is now Fort McCoy in Wisconsin and at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

After leaving the Army, Hurd returned to Minnesota, where he and his wife raised a family. He worked different jobs over the years – driving trucks and school buses, working as a plumber and an electrician, and being a security guard.

He’s a quiet man and said he’s embarrassed by the attention his case has received. He said he would have done the same thing if he came across someone in his situation.

“I would give up myself to destroy evil,” he said Thursday. “It’s just the way I am.”

Hurd doesn’t have a criminal history, but he acknowledged some problems with the way he handled things Tuesday night. He lied to police at first about the shooting, which he said he did because he was scared and confused. He doesn’t have a permit to carry the pistol he had with him.

If he could go back to when he fired his gun Tuesday and change things, he’s not sure he would.

“God only knows,” Hurd said. “I don’t want to say yes and I don’t want to say no because you have a different frame of mind in that situation. I felt like I was violated. You look for some justice for yourself.”

State Rep. Tony Cornish, who sponsored a bill this legislative session to give citizens more leeway in using deadly force to defend themselves, said he was outraged by what happened to Hurd.

“Maybe if these scumbags that were beating and robbing our old people had some doubt in their mind if they were going to survive their own crime, they would have some doubt about committing it in the first place,” said Cornish, R-Good Thunder.

Cornish’s bill, which he called “Stand Your Ground” legislation, didn’t get a committee hearing. Though it might not have applied directly in Hurd’s case, Cornish said, the law would have offered clarity about when and how citizens can defend themselves.

Current Minnesota law says it’s justifiable to kill someone if you are “resisting or preventing an offense” that you “reasonably” believe could lead to “great bodily harm or death” for you or another person. If you are in your own home, deadly force can be used to prevent someone from committing a felony.

Even so, local attorneys think an argument could be made for Hurd’s actions. If he is charged and the case goes to a jury, he’ll likely come across as a sympathetic figure, they said.

“These aren’t cases prosecutors like to take to juries,” said Richard Frase, a University of Minnesota law professor.

Mara H. Gottfried covers St. Paul public safety. She can be reached at mgottfried@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5262.

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

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